Subsequent Remarks

Just as nowhere else in these soul paintings are mere symbols or allegories meant, so too is this not the case with the depiction of the temple process at the end of the “Gate of Initiation.” Those who are unfamiliar with the nature of the real spiritual world may see symbolism or allegory in these depictions. In images such as the temple image at the end of the “Gate of Initiation,” the forces active in the spiritual world are summarized for the soul's view, whose expression in the sensory world are such processes as are given in the other images of the “Gate of Initiation.” Certainly, the image of the temple as it is presented is not in itself the reality under consideration; but there is the way in which this reality must shape itself into experience in the imagination of the soul living in the physical world. In the “Trial of the Soul,” the spiritual-soul processes are already detached from the inner being of Johannes Thomasius. He no longer lives merely in what remains subjective to him; he is placed in life processes whose spiritual factors and connections he experiences. — However, this does not mean that the soul experiences in the “Gate of Initiation,” which Maria experiences, for example, are not real soul experiences. It is just that they exist independently of those of Johannes in Maria's soul. In the “Trial of the Soul,” the actual shared experience of the spiritual world begins. Everything that then takes place, such as the return to the previous incarnation (of the fourteenth century), is possible because of the higher spiritual development that the individuals have entered into during the time between the “Gate of Initiation” and the “Trial of the Soul.” —